About Pipsychology

If you can't keep your emotions in check when trading, you will lose money. Lots of it. Pipsychology was created to help minimize this from happening to you. The most significant action that you can do to improve trading profits is to work on yourself. Really knowing yourself and how you think can give you an edge that others in the market don't have. My goal is to share practical advice to improve your forex psychology without boring you to death. Hopefully you can develop the mental edge you need to become the best trader you can be.

5 Qualities of a Good Forex Trading Mentor

The problem with being a trader is that, by pure numbers alone, it can be quite a lonesome business. Unless you’re some hotshot working on a trading desk for a bank, or you have control of a proprietary account for an investment firm, you probably won’t get the chance at first-hand, personal interaction with more experienced traders.

For many of us, we have to rely on ourselves to find that mentor who can guide us in our journey to become consistently profitable traders. We have to go through books, forum posts, and blogs to find the most suitable mentor for each of us.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a mentor as a “trusted counselor or guide”. In my opinion though, that definition isn’t enough. Here are some qualities that I think every mentor should have:

1. Credibility

First of all, any good trading mentor must have evidence that he or she knows what he’s talking about. I’m talking about a proven track record (three years should suffice) with detailed records that explain his trading process.

2. Inspiring

Second, your mentor has to be someone you look up to. This goes beyond the scope of just trading.

According to BabyPips forum user Mastergunner99, mentoring should go beyond just the forex market. Conversations with your mentor must include topics on goals, relationships, and possibly, faith.

Most importantly, Mastergunner99 believes that your mentor should have your best interests mind and should guide you towards the lifestyle that you aspire to acquire.

3. Trustworthy

Thirdly, you must be able to trust him or her. You have to be able to open up to that person, because not only will you most likely be following his trading style, but he will also be critiquing you as a trader.

If you don’t trust his or her judgment, it will be very hard for you to keep an open mind, keeping you from growing as a trader.

More importantly, down the road, you will eventually move on to live trading. Do you trust this person enough to teach you so that you don’t blow away your hard-earned cash, time, and effort?

4. Honest

As I have said time and again, the forex market is unforgiving. If your mentor promises you 100% success, you better think twice about heeding his advice.

He should be able to make you understand the real-deal and tell you that forex trading ain’t easy business. It is his job as a mentor to prepare you and help you get through those tough times.

5. Encourages independence

Don’t get me wrong, I advocate having someone else in your trading journey. However, there will be instances when you will have to trade alone. Heck, it would be very hard to find someone in the same timezone as you are.

A good mentor should be able to help you realize and make you confident enough that you will be okay on your own. After all, at the end of the day, you’re still the one making the call on those trades.

I’m not gonna lie, finding the ideal trading mentor with all of the traits mentioned above is like finding a unicorn. However, you can try your luck by interacting with other traders such as those in the BabyPips.com forums, from whom I got some of the ideas for this article.

Just be careful though! Many people, scammers or not, offer mentorship at a price. However, I don’t believe that it is necessary to shell out boatloads of money for a good mentor. Some people, like SimonTemplar, find fulfillment at the mere fact in helping other people.

The way I see it, finding a good mentor depends a lot on you. And I don’t mean by how much money you’re willing to shell out for them.

Mentorship isn’t just a one-way street. You, as the student, stand to gain knowledge and wisdom under a mentor. But what’s in it for him if he decides to put in the time and effort to teach you? For many, it’s the joy of seeing a student grow, and I think many share DoubleEcho’s sentiment that a good mentor would only invest their limited time and resources into a noob who shows the potential for success and that they would work very hard for it.

With that in mind and if you’re seriously thinking about getting a GOOD trading mentor, I think you must first ask yourself, “Am I worth it?”

Thanks Dr pipslow for sharing ur educative article wt everybody without collecting a dime.My kudos not only for u but to every cordinators or authours at babypips blogs you are welldone keep it up is profitable for me.

Dr. Pipslow

Thank you so much for the kind feedback! Glad to know we’re making a good contribution in forex education. See you around!

forinstantincome

The insite was very helpful but I have found that there are a lot of good companies and software out there that will trade on your behalf in my 4 years of successful tradeing

Leap2Win

Thanks for sharing your experience of 4 years and finding those companies and software that has helped you become a successful trader over the years. I am a semi noobie and I am in search of good mentors as well, but can you give some tips on how to find these companies and software that can help one to become a successful trader.

Hollahollu

Thanks!

Dr. Pipslow

Thanks for checking out my blog! See you around!

paticas

Thanks for your tips , it have helped me a lot …

Dr. Pipslow

That’s great! Thanks for checking out my posts!

benedict

I never miss ur blog!
this site is like my FOREX bible!
thanx all!for ur great contributions.

Dr. Pipslow

Glad to hear that, mate! Thanks for checking out my blog!

ForExchange

Hi Pipslow,

is there a possibility that I send you my first quater reporting and you write your opinion about it? I made many mistakes in my first months and it would be good if someone would go threw on this report. If you could send your email address and write a short review, I would apreciate it.

More from our Blogs

Risk sentiment drove price action for the most part during today's morning London session. However, Brexit-related news resulted in the pound getting pushed this way and that. The ECB's policy decision from yesterday, meanwhile, was still apparently weighing down on the euro. ...